Team, S-Mirror wrote an excellent mine war guide. You can find the complete topic under Guides.
viewtopic.php?f=59&p=138654#p138654The part on commanding quoted below is especially helpful.
We can go into techical things, but I'd rather not. For the purpose of this guide, we'll be talking about an alliance army of 1/1/1/50k cats. Since this guide is for members, we'll discuss defending a mine.
An alliance army is attacking you! No vices are online, and the leader has passed out!
What can you do?
Well, guess what! You can command the battle! When another alliance attacks, troop numbers are NOT displayed under the actions command. In a way, it is like a hidden attack. If a vice or leader was online, they would have to decide whether their alliance army can take on whoever is attacking. But we're commanding this battle.
The enemy sends 1/1/1/15k. Easy right? Just pause your troops and and kill them one at a time?
WRONG
Mine battles are done at base stats. This means there is no speed factor to determine who gets first hit. The defender will always get first hit AS LONG AS THEY'RE MOVING FORWARD! By pausing your troops, you give their cats a free hit!
To give yourself time to kill the other troops, wait your cats for 4 turns. Move forward on the fifth, and TARGET their CATS. Ignore the rounds at the top--they are skewed and do not display the appropriate number.
Battle styles may vary depending on a member's battle experience.